Groveland needs to accept punishment and move on

Groveland couldn’t take a polite hint, and the result is that Florida’s Public Employees Relations Commission last week slapped the city a second time for dismissing a union-organizing officer, and a new decision directed the city immediately to rehire her.

A PERC hearing officer had ruled against Groveland in January and ordered the city to rehire Katherine “Cindy” Homelius after the resolution of a related felony charge alleging she used a city credit card for personal purchases.

Groveland filed 19 objections to that ruling, and on March 13 a panel of three agency commissioners not only upheld the hearing officer’s decision but told the city it didn’t have enough evidence to dismiss Homelius, 58, and should put her back on the job without delay. Their 14-page report noted that the criminal charge was based on information provided by the city, which they already had ruled was bogus.

Just in case Groveland foolishly wants to stick its municipal neck out again — where it’s likely to be chopped off — the city has the right to take the panel’s recent decision to a district court of appeal within 30 days.

Will Groveland do it?

City Manager Redmond Jones said he didn’t know.

“Even the fact that it’s an option is kind of news to me,” Jones said.

The council will meet this week to discuss the case, he said.

Like most small departments, Groveland has had its share of troubles with officers over the years. Homelius’ problems, however, didn’t start until she began backing the union effort in 2013. (Officers eventually voted in the International Union of Police Associations, and Local 6090 represents them.)

Supervisors said Homelius did a good job after she was hired in August 2011, and two former chiefs testified on her behalf. In 2013, the city began claiming Homelius failed to solve enough cases and that twice she improperly talked to on-duty officers about union matters.

Hearing officer Gregg Riley Morton’s conclusions went harshly and decidedly against the city. He wrote, “Homelius was targeted and terminated for her visible union activities to serve as a warning to others not to support Local 6090.”

He ruled the city’s claims were “pretexts” for firing her and stated that city officials weren’t truthful when they told employees they were neutral about the union organization.

“Management in the department created a hostile climate toward Local 6090 and toward any officers who were visibly seen to be supporting Local 6090, with Homelius being the most visible,” Morton wrote in his Jan. 5 decision.

He ordered the city to pay for Homelius’ lawyers and to post notices conspicuously stating that the city will stop discriminating against officers for union activities.

Oh, ouch. That’s a serious spanking. But Groveland continued to complain that Morton was wrong. Putting the whining in writing in the form of 19 objections clearly annoyed the heck out of the panel of three commissioners. They patiently explained in their ruling how hearing officers go about deciding who is right when testimony conflicts. They did it in a way that eviscerated Groveland’s arguments.

For some reason, smaller police departments in Lake County tend to cling to outdated notions of how to treat people. Fruitland Park has laid out hundreds of thousands, partly for the outrageous behavior of its former police chief, and Mascotte currently is embroiled in nearly a half-dozen lawsuits and an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint over similar issues.

Groveland should take its cue from these other situations and fold. Continuing to fight will result in taxpayers losing money, lawyers making it and the city looking even more misguided.

Lritchie@tribune.com. Lauren invites you to send her a friend request on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/laurenonlake.